Aircraft and aerospace vehicles are typically formed using conductive and non-conductive materials. Some vehicles are formed of all metal material and can protect against lightning and electromagnetic interference (EMI), provide shielding effectiveness (SE) and are mechanically durable. However, there are several disadvantages to forming an aircraft using all metal material. These include weight concerns, corrosion, a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch, structural failure and aerodynamic design constraints. Moreover, aircraft vehicles are increasingly formed using composite materials for high strength and stiffness with minimal weight. These vehicles include composite panels for cosmetic coverings, for example, and empennage, wing, fuselage structures and turbine blades. A conventional lightning protection system for aircraft systems formed using composite materials includes embedding a metal mesh or expanded metal foil on a surface of or within laminate layers of the composite materials. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional aircraft 100 typically includes a metal mesh surface 50 formed on a top surface of a fuselage 101, wings 102 and portions of an empennage 103 of the aircraft 100. This system has several disadvantages, such as increased weight of the aircraft 100, failure to detect lightning strikes, and failure to perform damage diagnostic due to the occurrence of a strike.